“Michael Rong-Gen Yin, originally from Shanghai, began painting in the traditional Chinese manner in the 1970s. During the 1980s he was a member of an artist collective and had occasions to tutor painting in Japan and Germany. Having come to Northern Ireland in 2003 Rong-Gen has continued to paint and teach traditional Chinese painting techniques. Rong-Gen practises the two main techniques of Chinese painting – Gongbi, where intricate brushstrokes form detailed coloured landscapes, which can include narrative themes and Xieyi, which is much looser using bold brushstrokes and watercolour wash. Rong-Gen currently tutors Chinese watercolour painting in the Chinese Resource Centre and the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast.” (https://www.ronggenyinartist.com)
The exhibition is breathtaking for its sincere respect for tradition.
This artist feels no need to invent new ways of painting, holding on to the two inherited techniques with discreet deviations.
It is a different kind of freedom when you follow and respect your ancestors while making something that was not in the world before. It is like growing plants from a seed.
On his website he has a comparison of Gongbi
and Xieyi
In comparison with the vast art market offers of Chinese art on ebay etc., this exhibition offers commitment to poetic truth of the inherited themes, making the lyricism of the brushstrokes comfortable with absences. Not so much a story – more reminiscent of Goethe’s Faustus selling his soul for the perfect moment. Yes, states of mind.
And economy of means. From daring emptiness to noisily busy composition the commitment to the just the right doses of forms, light and shadows, gets never betrayed. Humour is allowed to puzzle the attention, here placing the singing bird into a centre of the composition titled The Autumn Leaves. Focus on the bird may evoke the memory of a bird song, focus on the leaves, and the image evokes the smell of the wood in late autumn.
In comparison an image of man made habitat is saturated from edge to edge, cancelling free space that does not build the depth – all is a part of the utility of nature. Anthropocentric motives nest in self-confident countryside.
Nature is to serve the mankind without getting completely tamed.
I appreciate this painter’s sincerity to deliver images that do not imprison the viewer’s habitual need for detailed and complete story. Instead he dares to outshine the beauty in observation with nothingness.
There is respect, discipline and wild flying away from both, in a superb harmony with empty ground.
Rong-Gen Yin gives demonstrations, teaches the how of his art. The what however is in the air settling on the paper with his first brush mark. The why of his images has to do with his respect for his predecessors. A very Chinese phenomenon.
The title A Brush with Nature is gentle play with double meaning: art competes/brushes with nature or vice versa; , or this is made by a painting brush and observed nature. I entertain both at once, with a smile.
The whole luxurious exhibition is on his website. In addition, there is a charming pointed use of a green hue in otherwise black drawing/watercolour, on his contact us page; it would not let me copy and paste.
Images courtesy the Engine Room Gallery and https://www.ronggenyinartist.com
